The state of NASCAR is a sad one; a lot of blame to go around

The word ‘change’ should be considered a curse word in the NASCAR world. All jokes aside, the Quaker State 400 failed to live up to its expectations, as expected. From my vantage point behind my television screen and microphone, attendance looked poignant. The state of NASCAR is a sad one, but fans and NASCAR should share the blame.

I pointed out on Twitter that this race was very difficult to broadcast. Aside from the head-shaking gaffes made by TNT and the poor coverage, the racing was mediocre at best. As a result, I had to pull random factoids out of my head to keep the flow running.

Apparently stating my opinion makes me a hater. After the race, I learned that in order to be knowledgeable about the sport, I need to never, ever talk poorly about anything NASCAR related. In other words, I need to shut up and just do my job.

Thankfully, I decided not to in this matter. If I do not speak my mind about topics that concern me, that would be a dereliction of my duty. It is our job as media folks to ask the hard questions and make the ‘controversial’ statements. Also, I hate the word ‘controversial.’ Why does everything have to be controversial?

The fact of the matter is, the fans are at fault for what happened this evening. Is it all the fans? No, not at all. For those already offended, please keep on reading. The fans pushed for Kentucky Speedway to be added onto the schedule. As a result, NASCAR gave the fans what they wanted. Now, those same fans are complaining the race was boring.

Do not get me wrong, Kentucky is a nice track, but, it is not built for Sprint Cup Series racing. I have not seen a single exciting cup race there so far. Some may disagree, but there are a lot of factors that come into play, including debris cautions and double-file restarts, which some claim is manufactured.

Where do we see the most exciting racing? It certainly has not been at 1.5 mile tracks. Bristol, Martinsville, and Richmond, for example, have provided some amazing racing this season! “Did you see that finish at Richmond?” We, the fans, want to hear more of those questions! “Did you see that finish at Kentucky?” It’s unlikely anyone will hear such a question.

Did anyone get a chance to read what Humpy Wheeler had to say? In my opinion, I wish he were helping run things. The man knows business and that is what puts rears in the seats. NASCAR lacks emotion. Sure, anyone could get onto a driver’s radio feed and listen to curse words, but that is not what I mean. NASCAR needs villains and the cars need to be slower.

As Mr. Wheeler said, “You can’t really race when you’re more than 200 mph on an intermediate track. They should slow ‘em by at least 10 mph. And they need to attack the dreaded “aero push” problem. They haven’t done it yet, but they’re starting to look at it. Downforce is creating aero push, so they have to figure that out.” NASCAR should really consider this. At first, I was against it. I thought it was all about the speed. It really is not. The extra speed is what is causing a lot of the problems, especially at 1.5 mile tracks.

Wheeler also talked about the lack of personalities. The lack of personalities is NASCAR’s own fault, for example, NASCAR had an opportunity to gain from the Ambrose-Mears fight after Richmond. Instead, Ambrose was fined $25,000 and Mears, fined $15,000. Why did NASCAR fine Mears, eating a straight right-hand to the face?

Despite the outcome, NASCAR will foolishly use the fight as hype for the race, but everyone knows there will not be a sequel. Thankfully, the race is at Richmond, where the Gen 6 has had some exciting racing.

Why is NASCAR having attendance issues at the 1.5 mile tracks? Sure, technology plays a part of the factor; however, that factor is minimal. Some folks can stream races live, while others may follow Twitter instead of making the expensive commute to see it live. How come we are not seeing the same problem with every other sport? We do not, which means there is something we can do better.

I have talked to many fans about our future as a sport. Boy, we have some passionate fans out there. They proudly represent the driver they love and go bananas with everything. Answer this question: does the best car usually win in NASCAR today? In regards to this evening, the best car won. Brad Keselowski was the class of the field. At tracks 1.5 miles or longer, every race should be just as exciting as Saturday.

On Sunday, there was only one debris caution and it was a legitimate one. From my standpoint, NASCAR generally throws a random debris caution to help the “show.” If NASCAR was confident that its racing would deliver, there would be no need for it.

NASCAR needs to get rid of the lucky dog and wave around. Eliminate anything that rewards drivers for not doing well enough to be on the lead lap. Given, sometimes things happen. A driver decides to pit during the green flag and someone blows a right-front, putting you down a lap. Tough beans, work your way back up to the lead lap. Line up on the inside of the leader and good luck.

In boxing, one boxer may be getting dominated in every category. All of a sudden, one pop opens up a huge cut over the right eye, bleeding and causing his vision to be blurred. In NASCAR land, this is a car that is not performing well enough to be on the lead lap. If NASCAR were in control of the World Boxing Council, this boxer would get the wave around. For one round, the boxer will get to wave around the ring. Meanwhile, the boxer who drew first blood will not be allowed to hit his opponent to allow his man to recover. At the end the commentators exclaim, “What a finish!”

I have a better idea! How about we regulate how much a boxer can train? For example, the world champion cannot train for his title bout. Only the fighter who has not won a world title can train. In the blue corner, the defending champion, Jimmie Johnson! In the red corner, the challenger, Timmy Hill! Let’s get ready to rumble! Oh, Hill got knocked out in round 1. So much for the new regulation.

What am I getting to? No matter what NASCAR does to regulate the big, macho teams, the little guys will get squashed every track they visit, with the exception of Daytona and Talladega. Think about it for a second. From 1984-1990, Hendrick Motorsports saw 28 victories in its first six years in existence. Fast forward to today. In the past six years, Hendrick Motorsports has won 57 races, just over twice that amount. How did Mr. Hendrick make his team so successful? The man knows how to run a business, the man knows people. NASCAR did not build that team to the way it is today.

I will always be loyal to NASCAR, but I think we should really consider making changes to help things in the long run. If we do so, we will see improvements made and we will see more races sell out. It’s time to put innovation to work.

Ryan O'Hara is a Junior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where he will obtain a degree in National Security- primarily Intelligence Writing, as well as a degree in Mandarin Chinese.
O'Hara is an experienced TV and radio broadcaster, with over 13 years experience.
O'Hara also plays college hockey for the Embry-Riddle Ice Eagles. In 2007, at the age of 13, O'Hara made an appearance on NBC KYMA, where he did a weather segment.
Follow him @RyanPrakOHara on Twitter!

** The opinions expressed on this site are not necessarily those of the publisher. All comments other than website related problems need to be directed to the author. (c)SpeedwayMedia.com. **

You can no longer sell 3rd world technology racing cars in a first world country, Nascar is equall to 1960 European Technology, Indy and Cart is 25 year old F1 technology, all designed built by old European F1 constructors that can not make it into the big time F1.

I find it surprising that the USA fell so far behind in motor sport, even here in little 3rd world South Africa we design and build Le Mans LMP2 cars, these levels of skill does not exist in America, where are the Rory Byrnes ( Ferrari), Gordon Murray’s( Mclaren), Piere Terblanches (Ducati) all locals South African of America

Well.. you started ok.. and almost touched upon the reason NASCAR is in trouble. HMS…period. overfunded dominating the underfunded. I say do this.. 5 teams only.. each with 11 drivers. share the technology. create spending limits and make all just a little more competitive. Would it good for NASCAR if Josh Wise or Ryan Truex won a race??? hell yeah!

If NASCAR would eliminate a significant portion of the downforce on these cars and allow mechanical grip to be the determinant, Kentucky would provide outstanding racing. The groove is amply wide enough for passing and for running side by side. It is the aerodynamic loss that causes the inability to race, since aerodynamic downforce force is lost when a car gets to within about five car lengths of the car it is overtaking, and it can no longer gain on or pass that car.

NASCAR could take a lesson from Indycar. They reduced downforce on their cars and the racing improved dramatically.

A person cannot look forward to any reasonable intelligent conversation coming out of the mouths of the TNT announcers. Neither Tweedle-dumb and Tweedle-Dee have any original thoughts. Both being past participants in Cup, (you notice I didn’t say drivers) a person would think either of them would be able to explain certain happenings as they occur on the track. On a few rare occasions, do they go to the bathroom, and give the mike to Larry Mac, who forgot more than either of these two ever knew.

Yes. I was rolling on the floor when they were explaining that Danica Patrick had lost five positions after the restart because she had taken four tires (!), and then less than two minutes later told us that Jimmie Johnson had gained, yes gained, four positions in the same half dozen laps because he had, wait for it, taken four tires.

Went to the races Saturday. The downpour of rain did not help, and lack of being able to go into the pits after paying for separate tickets to go to the infield did not make me a happy racer. Seems that only season ticket holders could make that entry.

I enjoyed the race, and the view we had of the race. Kentucky speedway had serious issue around people leaving the track, we had waited in dead stopped traffic until 1:30am until traffic finally moved.

We were stuck with the first race at kentucky (rains,mud and horrible traffic leaving the lot) , than the 1st Nascar race and with high hopes we tried again on Saturday.

Highly recommend that race fans pony up for a rv and get comfortable or simply not attend to avoid this issue.

Hopefully a better managed exit strategy will come before attendance goes to zero.

This is just an article that is done for one purpose,to submit an article.This article says nothing and should not even be published.Just when you start to say something you end the article.Pathetic.If you have a limit on the length of it just stop before you start.